The Man Who Survived the End
by NamelessWarrior
Summary: As he dies, he remembers the mistakes he has made. But too, does he remember the one life he saved some thirty years ago...


I own only my work and unfamiliar characters. Having seen the "Riddick Insider" on the DVD might help you understand the writing better. I did my homework.

The One Who Survived the End 

There are many things I have seen, and wish to forget. The fall of empires, the deaths of thousands, the dead eyes of converts that I have turned up for the sick pleasure of the Lord Marshal. There are things I have done, and wish to forget. The murder of millions, converting myself, the embracement of a religion that was never my own….

However, there is one thing that I can still hold on to in my time of death. I am directly responsible for the life and future of Richard B. Riddick. I am responsible for the lives lost in the hands him, for the prison escapes, for his lost loves and broken dreams. I am. I saw to it that the young Furyan survived he attack mounted by Zhylaw the Last, who would one day become the Lord Marshal. I was there, and I saw him live.

My name was lost after I was purified. I was not much of a warrior, so I became a purifier. Soon, that became my new name, The Purifier. I was born the warrior race planet of Furya and taught in the Penal System. Though, as I got older my curiosity peaked, so my sister Kyan and I left for better things. I was nineteen then…

Every Furyan new of a prediction more than one hundred years of age, that told of a Furyan who would bring down "the Death-Bringers" and restore balance. However, some thought it to be younger then that considerably, but it was older than some people thought. I remember seeing a Seer, and she told me that one day fate would give me a child, and it would be my doing that would restore, or destroy, the Universe.

The planet that Kyan and I escaped to for intellectual enlightenment was the first to be conquered by the Necromongers, as far as I could surmise. I converted in fear of death, but Kyan did not live long enough to have a choice. I regret my actions now…

Zhylaw was there on the planet that I was converted on. He was converted the same night I was. I never trusted him. After rising through the ranks, up to the highest commander in the army, Zhylaw's lust for power grew. I guess he saw a friend in me, but all I saw was a monster waiting in the shadows to devourer its next victim, in him. I remember his exact words one night after having a fall out with the current Lord Marshal. He said, "One of these days, I swear, I'll knock that son of a bitch off the thrown that is rightfully mine! He contradicts everything I say and do, he has no goddman right to be in this Basilica!" But as his rank grew, his paranoia followed suit. He was always looking over his shoulder to see what followed behind him. One day he saw a Seer about his rule as Lord Marshal. Obviously, he was told something he didn't like because the next day, he asked the very man he despised the most to lead the attack on a planet out of the way of the caravan.

I was ordered to accompany him and his group of soldiers to a warrior race planet. I knew that I was in the company of murderers, and I took no pleasure in knowing I was about to wipe out millions of people, but I had not the slightest inkling of how close to my heart the planet was, until…. it was too late. Target: Furya.

Zhylaw was to conquer the planet and convert those who were willing, but he had his own agenda. He was going to kill every young male, even those who were yet to be born; strangling them with their birth cords. An artful stroke, no? I was ordered to leave the ship and kill all those I found, mothers; husbands, and every child. As I walked the crumbling ruins of my once beautiful home, I found a woman. I knew my orders but I could not bring myself to kill her, she looked so much like Kyan…

She grabbed my ankle and said, no weeped, "Please, take...my son...cough Richard before 'they' come…" I thought that she had mistaken me for a survivor. I knelt down to see her better. Her face, covered with dirt and blood. Her clothes, torn so that I could see the mark on her chest. Her son was tiny, the size of a newborn, he still had his birth cord attached to his stomach. "I see your uniform…but I too see the mark…there…under your clothing." She was gasping for air, and I knew that these would be her last breaths. I took the baby from her arms and saw a chain around his neck that said **_RICHRD B. RIDDICK_**. I glanced down at the woman to give my farewell, and I saw a grizzly sight that turned my stomach. She had been stabbed in the back, third lumbar down, what we taught in the Penal System refer to as "The sweet spot". Not only that, her throat had been slit, poorly might I add. The thing that kept the two halves connected was the tight necklace tied around her neck.

I wrapped the breeder in swaddling garments and loosely wrapped his umbilical cord around his neck to give the impression of a corpse. I looked through every alleyway until I found a small, abandoned skiff.

"…The hell are you doing, Purifier?" It was Zhylaw in more of a command than a question. The boy had slowed his breathing and closed his eyes, true survival skills.

"A baby Commander Zhylaw. I was taking him…."

"Just leave him in street. I want no Furyan escaping from this planet." Zhylaw had walked down the alley of which I was in and brought his face close to the boy's. I saw Richard open his eyes ever so slightly to see the face of the man who killed his race, his family, his home… Zhylaw saw nothing unusual and proceeded down the alleyway.

"Sir, if I may be as bold to ask, why do you want this race dead?"

Zhylaw stopped in his tracks and turned his head only enough to say, "Don't question the commands of those higher than you Purifier. You may keep out armies vast, but you do not control your superiors". With that, he disappeared into the night and pillars of fire before him.

I quickly boarded the small skiff and headed in the direction of a new planet. I cannot recall the name of the planet, nor the galaxy but I do remember the feeling of staring eyes on my armor and the notion of not being wanted there. I found a tavern where people would surely find him. I genteelly placed the child in a trash bin and knocked on the door.

Before I left him I said softly to the young child, "One day, young warrior, we will meet again. And on that day, I will surely die."

As I die, on the day I spoke to the same man whose life I saved thirty years ago, I die with one thing on my mind: I had helped the man who would bring down "the Death-bringers" and restore balance to the Universe.


End file.
